New Zealand Wedding Industry Speaker, Presenter, and Producer
In a past life, I was a key part of the team that produced one of the largest wedding expos in New Zealand. The Grand Wedding Show started at Auckland’s Aotea Centre in the mid-2000s, before moving to Sky City Convention Centre.
Spread over multiple floors, The Grand Wedding Show represented the best of the best in the wedding industry in Auckland and around New Zealand. The Fashion Show alone was quite unlike anything else, and the entire day was indoors, weatherproof, under one roof.
One of the many ways The Grand Wedding Show stood out was the series of seminars and presentations held in smaller side rooms within the venue. Rather than just leave couples to grab piles of flyers and business cards from exhibitors to sort through later, the seminars were a way to hear wedding service experts speak, present ideas and advice, and field questions as well.
While I’m no longer connected to the business in any way, I’m very proud of the role I played in producing and contributing to The Grand Wedding Show at the time (my last show was 2014).
Not only was I working behind the scenes helping the show even happen, I looked after audio and visual content for the fashion shows (two shows per day) and also a number of different educational presentations.
Three of the most memorable for me were:
How Much Should a Wedding DJ Cost?
Presented as part of the seminar program at The Grand Wedding Show at Sky City.
Is your wedding entertainment just someone’s weekend hobby? Do they know how to make it any different to the weekend before? 11 questions to ask that will help find a great entertainer that offers more than “just music”.
Learn how New Zealand DJ entertainment has changed and what you can expect from your wedding DJ.
Ideas and examples from weddings worldwide and locally around NZ.
The seminar was based on this blog entry.
How To Choose A Great Wedding MC
Many couples don’t realise the crucial role their wedding master of ceremonies will play. They assume because their MC is a “great public speaker”, everything will fall into place. The key to being a great wedding MC is communication which does not mean just talking. Being a confident public speaker does not necessarily mean they know what to say, or when.
Improve-a-Groom for guys
Co-presented by Nick Logan (Auckland) Wedding DJ and Richard Mills (now deceased, Wellington) MC + DJ as part of the seminar program at The Grand Wedding Show at Sky City.
Ideas and direction just for grooms. Tips for the ceremony, the speech, the dance, and even the planning that guests will love, and she’ll never forget.
Improve-a-Groom is all about encouraging the groom to be himself, to be the man she agreed to marry, to be creative in his own unique way. It’s also about helping the guys understand some of the challenges a bride faces both in the planning and on the day itself.
Ideas include:
- How he can start the reception in a way nobody will EVER expect with just 3 words
- How to prepare an ever better wedding speech
- What he can do in the days before the wedding to help the bride and/or bridesmaids
- How to handle advice from multiple sources
- Wedding video secrets
- Surprises with his own flair that any bride will love
- Overall planning and preparation
- First dance tips
